What really makes new media-related content exciting is that creators aren’t afraid to experiment. Our city saw several “lockdown wonders” over the first and the second COVD-19 lockdowns. Samyukhtha Sunil, a Bangalore-based podcast host, was one among them.
Originally from Chennai, Samyuktha moved to Bangalore at the age of eight. I met her when she was all of 12, in her blue school uniform and pigtails, sitting in a quiet corner of the school’s staircase, engrossed in reading a Wimpy Kid book. Today, at 23, Samyukhtha works as a PR representative and creative strategist for Echoes of Earth, a music festival. But she shot to fame as a podcast host, with her very own podcast titled “Bob Talks.”
When asked how she came up with the idea of a podcast, Samyukhtha said, “I’ve been told I talk a lot, and I wanted to experiment with different mediums. So I thought, what better way than a voice narrating stories about the city specially during a time when people were so disconnected from the rest of the world. It would make the experience more intimate.”
Growing up as someone who loved to write, Samyuktha shared that the first piece of writing that she truly enjoyed, and one that gave her the confidence to put it out there for people to read, was a piece she wrote about Bangalore.
While brainstorming names for the podcast, the first name she thought of was “Silk Bored”, and she instantly realised how bad it was. “‘Bob’ is a common form of endearment, unique to the city,” she said. Indeed, what better way to capture the essence of the city is just one word. Bob Talks was born during the first lockdown in the comfort of her childhood bedroom.
The audience she wanted to attract were people between the ages of 18 to 25, people who had lived in the city at some point, people who had done most of their growing up here, and people who had lived in Bangalore for long enough to call it home. She says that this podcast was also for people entering the city newly. “There’s always this larger narrative of Bangalore being an ‘experience’ for people and being a city like no other. We say Bangalore is an emotion. But how do you explain this ‘emotion’ to someone new to the city? That’s what I tried to do with Bob Talks.”
While talking about some of the difficulties that she faced, Samyukhtha said, “In this era of reels, TikTok, and short-form content, people have lesser attention spans. And no one would want to listen to 15-20 minutes of someone speaking. I had to strategise in a way that was very thoughtful and mindful.” Are these stories worth sharing? Would it keep my audience entertained? Would it make them want to come back and listen to the next episode… were all questions she would often find herself asking while writing and recording episodes. Through her podcast, she wanted to create a niche for the kind of content the city should like to create and consume.
“The move to Bangalore has been very instrumental in shaping the person I am today. It really marked the beginning of a new era for me." She believes that a large part of her personality has to do with the freedom and openness this city introduced to her, which she thinks is unmatched even after all these years.
Bob Talks, she says, helped her gain control over her identity in a way where she could contribute to the identity of the city and its youth culture, which she thinks is really cool. “Hundreds of people will follow suit and do similar things but having been a ripple of some sort is a pretty big deal to me,” she adds.
The one thing about Bangalore that always keeps her going is that the city is constantly reinventing itself, becoming more and more inclusive and welcoming of newer people, ideas, and cultures. She believes that this is what works and will continue to work for the city that Bangalore is.
On a parting note, one piece of advice she’d like to give people new to the city, just like she was 15 years ago, is to allow the most beautiful thing about the city - the coexistence of cultures which finds its way into one’s lingo, food habits, or just the way you communicate and socialise - to grow on them.
To listen to the podcast, click here.
ความคิดเห็น